A fast bowling renaissance has begun

With the introduction of thicker bats, field restrictions, free hits and favourable pitches in cricket, bowlers have gradually fallen out of favour. Many term cricket 'a batsmen's game' now. The scoring rates have increased, the size of boundaries have been reduced.

But of late, after complete domination by batters for almost half a decade, a revival for bowlers seems to be on the cards. Over the last few years, things have turned around massively with the influx of a number of sensationally talented fast bowlers.

The 20th century is considered the golden period of fast bowling. The world saw many fearsome fast bowlers breaking speed barriers and bones of the batters in that period. But as time progressed, the number of such bowlers continued to decrease. 

When the game started to support the batters exclusively, the teams recognised the significance of improving fast bowling skills. In order to survive, the pacers needed to be skilled more than ever before. 

In modern-day cricket, batters are always looking to score. There is a marked increase in the average first innings ODI score over the last few years. That's where fast bowlers came into play. 

The successful teams in limited-overs cricket have been able to pick just about the right combination of pacers. Bowlers have been given specific roles. For example, England fast bowler Liam Plunkett used to bowl the majority of his overs between overs 11-40. He used his variations to superb effect and picked up many wickets in the middle overs as well as stopped the flow of runs.

The pitches are quite unresponsive these days and that has made the role of out-and-out fast bowlers more important. The likes of Anrich Nortje, Mark Wood, Lockie Ferguson have troubled batters and beaten them for pace regularly in pitches that aren't conducive to bowling. They sometimes concede too many runs but they always go for wickets. 

The epic duel between Jos Buttler and Nortje in the 2020 Indian Premier League (IPL) can be a good example. Nortje bowled incredibly fast in that spell with most of the deliveries being more than 150 kph. Butler was at his very best in the first five balls of the over and picked up 16 runs. But Nortje delivered yet another quick delivery. Butler was beaten for pace and his stumps were uprooted. Nortje was able to send back the dangerous Buttler despite going for runs and that was the turning point of the match. Nortje was adjudged player of the match. 

Lockie Ferguson is perhaps the best third seamer in limited-overs cricket in the world currently. Mark Wood has been more successful outside England than in England. Since the record began in 2006, Anrich Nortje has bowled the highest percentage of deliveries in excess of 140 kph. The next name in the list is Mitchell Starc. Their success in white-ball cricket suggests the revival of fast bowling. 

T20 cricket came into being in the mid-2000s and since then, pacers started to develop new skills and rely more on variations rather than pace. But in order to survive in Test cricket, the bowlers had to depend on the primary skills of fast bowling. 

Test cricket is a format where results largely depend on conditions. Teams tend to take advantage of home conditions and that makes life very difficult for touring bowlers. Bowlers of the subcontinental teams struggle in SENA (South Africa, England, New Zealand, Australia) and vice versa. 

Teams realised that the only way to make the contest between bat and ball more even is to have skilful bowlers. Since 2010, the collective bowling average of fast bowlers in Tests is 32.4, which is better than that of even the 1970s. The collective average was slightly lower in the 1990s (32.06) but it has to be remembered that the pitches were more helpful back then and the number of international matches per year was much less.

The likes of Pat Cummins, Kagiso Rabada, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult, Jofra Archer have started a renaissance of fast bowling. Pakistan have found at least three young promising quicks in the form of Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah and Mohammad Hasnain who can do wonders. Kyle Jamieson has got off to a dream start in Test cricket, making life difficult for batters. Mohammad Siraj took the cricketing world by storm in his debut Test series in Australia. The list continues to get longer and longer.

The second half of the last decade proved to be one of the most productive periods ever in the history of Test cricket for fast bowlers. Teams have been producing quality pacers frequently. Life on the fast lane is not easy for the fast bowlers but they very well know that in order to survive, they have to be among the best. There is no place for mediocrity. The world is, right now, witnessing fast bowling of the highest quality and the best is yet to come.